A pensioner was arrested for two alleged rapes after a chance encounter with
his victim 28 years later, a court has been told.

Lyndon Plummer forced himself on a 20-year-old woman twice at an address in west London between January and August 1983, jurors were told.

The woman complained to police in July 2011 after seeing Mr Plummer, who is now 67, at a wake in a pub, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Relations noticed Mr Plummer “staring” at the mother of two, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, before “tempers frayed”, jurors were told. The alleged victim, who is originally from South Yorkshire, is now in her 50s.

Of the first alleged attack, Alisdair Smith, prosecuting, told the court: “The complainant was minding her own business when the defendant made sexual advances.

“She begged him to leave her alone but the prosecution say he just ignored that and raped her.”

He added: “It’s perfectly plain, the prosecution say, that the defendant knew she would not have consented.”

Describing the chance meeting at the pub in the Harrow Road, west London, Mr Smith said: “The complainant’s daughter became aware of a man staring at her mother. When the woman saw the man, it seems she was visibly shaken by this.

“It led to an allegation being made against Mr Plummer there and then in the pub. He was confronted and inevitably, you may think, tempers became frayed.

“There was a fight and police were called. That did lead to the complainant making the allegation [of rape] to police.”

Mr Plummer, who lives in west London, was arrested in September 2011. He denied that he had raped the woman, and claimed the allegations had been fabricated to cover up an assault on him at the pub.

Mr Smith said: “The prosecution say this would not explain why the fight had taken place in the first place.”